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Guest Column: Disturbing themes from the U.N. Climate Change Summit

By JULIE SZYDLOWSKI

Though world leaders at the recent United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, failed to meet their objective for a legally binding accord to reduce global carbon emissions, the summit did produce two very disturbing themes: that capitalism is evil and that reducing the global population would be an effective means for saving the planet. These attitudes underscore the growing consensus that the global warming theory is becoming little more than a political tool for advancing dangerous agendas around the world.

In a speech at the Copenhagen summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez used the world stage to denounce capitalism as the enemy of the earth, not to mention the cause of AIDS, poverty and war.

"There is a ghost running through the streets of Copenhagen," Chavez told summit participants. "A terrible ghost. Capitalism is that ghost."

That his comments were met with a standing ovation begs the question: were those in attendance there to support reductions in global warming or to reveal their true agenda to undermine the free market systems that have consistently lifted nations out of poverty and sustained the way of life for millions here in America?

As Chavez made his remarks inside the gathering, outside on the streets of Copenhagen over 100,000 demonstrators were chanting, "Save the planet. Smash the system. Stop global warming. Give us socialism".

Taking a moment to examine global warming, proponents say it occurs when carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere trap the sun's heat, causing the planet to warm. Advocates purport that coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution, followed by automobiles.

The good news is that new technologies, spearheaded by corporations like General Motors and others, make cars run cleaner and burn less gas, modernize power plants, generate electricity from nonpolluting sources, and cut our electricity use through energy efficiency. Whether these efforts directly impact the earth's temperature or not, the truth is that no documentation of a sustained rise in temperature beyond normal climatic cycles exists. In fact, even the most vocal alarmists no longer call it global warming, but instead refer to the issue in the more innocuous vernacular of "climate change."

An objective look at atmospheric fluctuations reveals climate change does exist to the extent that temperatures have risen and declined regularly for the past 100 years, even on a daily basis, despite the fact that CO2 emissions have always been on the rise. Moreover, as recently as the 1970s, there was an equally loud warning about the plummet of the earth's temperature, and several scientists are claiming that to be true even now. Some people call these rises and falls in temperature a potential catastrophe; some just call it weather.

In fact, the recent "ClimateGate" episode, in which scientists at the Climate Research Unit in England admitted in e-mails that they were deliberately suppressing evidence that proved global warming was a myth, is rightly being hailed as the final nail in the coffin for the global warming movement.

Yet environmentalists, such as those present at the Copenhagen summit, continually use unproven global warming threats to justify anti-capitalist agendas. Interestingly though, summit representatives from two of the world's largest emerging economies -- China and India -- were the most vocal in their unwillingness to commit to the legal accord proposed at the summit. Citing the limitations and outlandish costs it would place on business operations, they shunned doing anything that would slow down the economic growth currently so prevalent in their countries.

Unfortunately, where China showed support for economic growth by rejecting the treaty, its summit representative did manage to exploit the global warming theory by advocating China's coercive one-child policy as a way of reducing CO2 emissions to save the planet.

While some may dismiss this as an irrelevant attitude rooted on the other side of the world, sadly and frightfully, versions of it are supported vocally right here in America. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for instance, has boldly cited population control as a means of improving the economy, stating that children are a drag on resources.

Other anti-human groups are proliferating at alarming rates. One such group, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, states on its Web site that, "the hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens ...us." It goes on to say, "when every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth's biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory."

While falling short of advocating human extinction altogether, more mainstream environmental groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society and the Sierra Club are all on record as saying that humans are a major contributor to problems in the environment. So what would they have humans do to reduce their carbon footprint?

It is not unreasonable to conclude that this type of fear mongering ultimately leads to an increased support for anti-life initiatives, such as abortion and euthanasia, as a way of caving in to the climate-change alarmists.

While we should all take care to respect our resources by curbing wastefulness, pollution, littering, etc., no human should feel guilty for populating the very planet on which God has placed us, and it is particularly diabolical to infuse young children with the fear that their very existence means doom for the planet. Whether one subscribes to the theory of global warming or not, it is important not to allow world leaders and influential organizations to manipulate it as a means for achieving anti-capitalist and anti-life objectives by attempting to make humans feel guilty for being here.

Julie Szydlowski is a resident of Shelby Township.


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